


Optimism, Pessimism

by arochill



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Hurt Gren (The Dragon Prince), Hurt No Comfort, Implied/Referenced Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-16
Updated: 2019-12-16
Packaged: 2021-02-26 21:28:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21825631
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arochill/pseuds/arochill
Summary: Gren was an optimist to the core, but even he couldn't see the positive in this.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 41





	Optimism, Pessimism

Gren was an optimistic person, that much was obvious to anyone that had met him, however short that encounter may have been. He was a man was a shine to his eyes and a smile on his lips that didn’t seem to falter even in the most dire of circumstances. At heart, Gren was an empathetic man. He was someone who would be sure to pick you up should something happen to you, he was someone that would be a rock when all you wanted to do was fall into a never ending pit of despair, he was a man who put his heart and soul on the line with every conversation he had, with every battle he waged.

Gren was an optimistic person. He didn’t let bad things happening to him weigh him down, even when there was no way out of the situation. He knew his limits, and he accepted them with the grace of someone who had been pushed down many times before.

But he was growing tired.

Gren knew that it had been a while since he had been put down into the dungeon by Lord Viren, and he knew that there was no chance of him escaping however much he wished to. Viren didn’t care much about making sure that Gren was healthy. He paid more attention to the prisoner that he had locked up in the room that was just barely out of Gren’s sight then he did to the man that he had chained up just to stop him from leading the expedition to find the princes

Gren was an optimistic person. He put his life on the line everytime that Viren walked down those stairs. He talked as much and as loudly and as cheerfully as he could, hoping to get any kind of response from the man that wasn’t just him being ignored. He did all he could to try and draw the attention of the man towards him just so he wouldn’t stave down in the dungeon as he already was with every passing day.

There was nothing worse than hearing the screams of torture day in and day out. Gren knew the sound intimately, however much he disliked the method with every fibre of his being, and he couldn’t bring himself to pretend it wasn’t happening. It didn’t matter who it was that was in that room, he just knew that  _ no one  _ deserved to experience that. 

Gren was an optimist. He tried to think of the positives of a situation that could only be classified as bad. He increased the stakes he put onto himself everytime he spoke. He swore, he cursed, he offended and he did all that he possibly could to draw Viren’s attention towards him. He was an optimistic person, and he didn’t stop until he got results. And  _ oh  _ did he get results.

Gren didn’t have the best foresight. Amaya was a strategist of a whole other calibre compared to him, and he found that most of the foresight he had came from Amaya’s own thought process. He knew that if he continued to be a nuisance, he could direct Viren’s attention towards him and hopefully get enough time to try and divert the man’s attention away from the person in the other room, as well as give Gren time to try and talk the man into setting him free. He hadn’t thought of what would happen if he had directed too much of the man’s ire.

Gren was an optimist, but even he couldn’t think of anything positive whilst he was being tortured by a man who had what had to be years of experience as well as the power of dark magic.

Gren wasn’t known for sacrificing himself in order to prevent another from getting hurt. He was the comfort after the storm, not the structure that stood the test of time against a force he had no way of fighting against.

Viren went back to torturing the person in the other room the day after, but by then Gren had learnt that he  _ did  _ have a way of at least protecting that person from Viren. He had no use down here, he wasn’t going to pretend he did, but at least he could do something as important as stopping the pain of someone else at least for a little while.

The smile on Gren’s face remained, but it slowly became something painful that even he had trouble putting on every time that Viren walked down those stairs.

Gren was an optimist. He suffered under Viren’s hand as much as he could and the only comfort he had in those times was that he had prevented his fellow prisoner temporary relief. He was an optimist but he didn’t expect for the day that the sound of pain coming from that other room to one day disappear completely. He didn’t expect for Viren to walk out that day and tell Gren to stop pretending to be the hero, for the ‘victim’ he had been protecting this whole time was now gone from life. He didn’t expect for Viren to look him right in the face with an expression so dead but so vindictive and tell him, “it was a moonshadow elf you were protecting, Commander. The one that killed your king. Give up already, you gain nothing from going against me,  _ Gren.” _

The next day that Viren came down, Gren was quiet.

Gren was an optimist at heart but even he knew there was nothing more he could do. There was no one left to protect down here, there was no one coming for him after all this time had passed. He was alone down here, and there was nothing positive left in this cold dungeon under the castle for him. He was so, so very tired of what was occuring.

The final time that Viren came down, he left with a purple bug on his ear and a dark, terrifying look in his eyes. And Gren accepted his fate. There was nothing left for him to be optimistic about.

He was going to die down here and there was nothing he could do about it.

Three days later, as Gren was slowly starving with Viren no longer bringing him down anything, he heard footsteps coming back down the stairs. He couldn’t even bring himself to look up, prepared for Viren ignoring him as always. There was nothing he could say, not anymore.

But instead of silence he heard a gasp, and he saw the feet moving towards him before he finally forced himself to look up, and it wasn’t Viren that was there in front of him but two of the men that Gren recognised to be trainees apart of Amaya’s unit.

They took him down from the chains. He collapsed to the floor immediately. His wrists were bruised, he was tired, he was hungry, he was so,  _ so  _ drained.

Gren was an optimist, but that didn’t mean that once he was free he didn’t cry with relief.


End file.
